Water, Water Everywhere!

This week was all about rivers, lakes, and just water! On Monday we did a science experiment with things that float and things that sink. The students predicted what the objects would do, then put in data for what actually happened! Tuesday was about the water cycle. We had a demonstration with a crock pot to show how water goes up to clouds (the lid), and then drips down. The students then made a living model!

Thursday we talked about the critters that live in water. We then picked our favorites and wrote about them. Most liked the snail, but a few liked the tadpole because "it is cute".

Along with learning about water, we have been learning more and more letter blends! This week we focused on fl, tr, sl, and pl. We also payed special attention to telling the difference between a "b" and "d". There two little tricks to help with this. B is bat before ball, and D is doorknob before door. We also had so me fun practice by writing in cool whip, YUM!

In math we have just finished early learning about fractions, and focused on probability! We made spinners to practice this concept!

Between lessons, the students are always working hard (and having fun!) in the free time area. There they can read, look at books, and do different activities set out every week. I love taking pictures of learning in action!

Little School on the Prairie

Between snow days last week and Monday off this week, we have had two very short weeks! Throughout these weeks we have spent times learning about the prairie. Last Thursday we learned about Native Americans that lived on prairies a long time ago. We discussed their culture, and some differences in their lifestyle from ours. The students then built little tepees, and drew Native American symbols on them (and made up some of their own!).

This week we learned about pioneers that use to live on the prairie. We even made our own homemade butter! It was delicious! The students also worked together to make a Venn diagram about the differences between living in pioneer times and now. Though we found many differences, the students also realized that their were many similarities like a families, animals, and church!

We also learned about prairie dogs that live on prairies. We read a hilarious book called The Great Fuzz Frenzy about silly prairie dogs finding a tennis ball! The students made their own fuzzy prairie dogs and wrote a sentence about them.

Besides all the fun prairie learning, we are continuing to learn letter blends in phonics. These past two weeks we talked about mp, nd, and st. The students have also been practicing hearing the ending sounds in words. It's amazing how many words the students can read now! Our word wall is full!

In math we have begun to learn about halves, thirds, and fourths. This has been a fun concept to learn! Another new thing we learned these past few weeks is tying shoes! The students have picked up quickly on this! We'll work on this for a few more weeks! If you tie shoes at home and hear about mountains and tepees, then they're probably singing our shoe tying rhyme...

Build a tepee, come inside. Close it tight so we can hide. Make a mountain, around we go. Here's my arrow, here's my bow!

Next week we're moving on to another part of the world, rivers! Can't wait to see everyone at parent/teacher conferences on Friday!

The Students Went Over the Mountain

Can you believe that it's January already! So sorry for the lack of post in December, between Christmas break and me being gone a week it was a very hectic time! It was really nice to come back and see my students again! 

We started some BIG stuff this week by learning about mountains! On Monday we discussed mountains and hiking. We then built our own mountains using Play-Doh.. One Tuesday the students were very excited to learn about volcanoes! We even had a model volcano that exploded. The students then worked together to write a story about the volcano. Here is what they wrote...

Volcano

We learned about volcanoes. 

Mrs. Tonner put vinegar, food coloring, and baking soda the middle of the volcano.

It erupted!

The volcano puffed up and was bubbly.

It sounded like cream soda

On Thursday we learned about panning for gold in the mountains. The student panned for their own gold, and found some gold chocolate nuggets! They then wrote and drew pictures about what they would do if they found real gold. Some answers were to buy a pet bird, four-wheeler, pony castle, and a tractor. 

In phonics we have begun to learn about letter blends This week we read words beginning with br, gr, st, sp. This means that there are some 5 letter words we are working on, like "stand", "grands", and "still".

In math we are diving deeper and deeper into adding skills. We are now adding money, and writing the problems vertically!

Next week we will continue to learn about places around the country by learning about rivers!